The mission of TED talks is to spread ideas that matter. TED talks have become a vital artery is today’s world. Originally the acronym stood for Technology, Entertainment and Design, drivers of change. But the very name TED makes it friendly, like a person speaking to you, one on one. And that has remained its character through its evolution. In tone, it is a conversation from one person to another, even when the other is a global audience. In subject matter, TED Talks encompass the full spectrum of human imagination, communicated through personal passion.

So it thrills me to be able to add my voice to the chorus that endures in TED formats. My personal passion has been trying to understand how humans shape their world, and then how that shape shapes them. We can be liberated or locked by the way we order the world. We always see through a lens, even when we are not conscious of it, like a fish not knowing it is swimming in water. The best we can do is to realize our prism can become our prison, and then enlarge our lens to take in more of the world. I will be giving a TEDx Talk in Dallas, Nov 15, 2016. The press release for the event is attached. The recorded talk will be uploaded on YouTube by the middle of December 2016. I welcome you to gather round the fire of TED’s global circle.

***HIDDEN SHAPES CLUE US TO HOW THE WORLD WORKS, WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Stark, who was a producer and writer of documentary specials for NBC network and has created over 40 documentaries, filming in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Cuba as well as throughout the U.S., will explain this concept in a TEDx Talk at SMU in Dallas on November 12, 2016 titled “Shape: Hiding in Plain Sight.”

Her November 12 TEDx talk will examine how shape reveals the mindset of cultures through time and provides cues to our future. Illustrated with a series of captivating photos, including originals taken by Stark, “Shape: Hiding in Plain Sight” offers a remarkable journey through time and place, from tribal ceremonies in Liberia and the pyramids of Egypt to Dubai and China -- where a hotel built in the shape of an upright ring upends all expectations.

Drawing on her experience as a filmmaker and global explorer, Stark reveals how shapes such as those of shelters, sacred sites and social systems reflect our frame of mind. Round thatched huts and labyrinths show us that migratory humans saw the world as a web. Church steeples and skyscrapers show us that urban humans viewed the world as a ladder.

“Nature does not change. Only the map in our mind changes,” Stark notes. Even the digital world holds a hidden shape. The network is the map we impose on everything. It is not just technology that develops. The very way we think shifts.

“Shape: Hiding in Plain Sight” prompts reflections on chaos becoming pattern, opposing forces becoming balance and the beauty of the big picture: how we are all connected, to nature and to each other.

A transcript and the photos are available upon request.

___About Lois StarkLois Farfel Stark is an Emmy Award-winning producer, documentary filmmaker and author of the book The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times (Greenleaf, 2017). During her distinguished career with NBC News, she produced and wrote over forty documentaries on architecture, medical research, wilderness protection, artists, and social issues. She has covered Abu Dhabi's catapult to the 20th century, the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, Cuba ten years after their revolution, the Israeli Air Force in the Six Day War, Northern Ireland during its time of religious conflict, and Liberia's social split.

Along with an Emmy, Lois is also the recipient of two CINE Gold awards, two Gold Awards from The International Film Festival of the Americas, the Matrix Award from Women In Communications, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award, and the Silver Award from the Texas Broadcasting Association. She has served as a trustee for institutions in education, health, the arts, and public service, including Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater. She lives in Houston.